Constitution of Malta

The Constitution of Malta was adopted on 21 September 1964, establishing Malta as a unitary parliamentary republic upon independence from Britain and replacing the 1961 constitution; it declares itself the supreme law of the land, so that any conflicting law or act is null and void. It was drafted by Attorney General J. J. Cremona, making Malta one of the few Commonwealth countries whose independence constitution was drafted by a local jurist, and it is a rigid constitution with three tiers of entrenchment for amendments. It provides for a unicameral House of Representatives elected by single transferable vote and a president as head of state; Malta became a republic in 1974. The constitution has been amended 24 times, most recently in 2020, when parliamentary appointment of the Chief Justice was reformed to require a two-thirds legislative majority.